


Two Words

by egglorru



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 18:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14774879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egglorru/pseuds/egglorru
Summary: Adam’s laugh shook Ronan’s whole body. It was as bright as the sun and almost as big; Ronan thought launching himself into it would be an ideal way to die.





	Two Words

The night before leaving for college, Adam lay curled up in Ronan’s arms. They were just this side of too warm under the blankets but Ronan was unwilling to move. Neither of them were asleep. 

He’d talked Adam into submitting his two weeks’ to his jobs a week earlier than necessary.  _So you can cram in time with me_ , he’d thought. “So you can pack, and wrap up your business in Henrietta without rushing and stressing,” he’d said.

Adam had agreed without much if any hesitation –  _he’ll miss me_ , Ronan thought fiercely – and they’d spent a solid week gallivanting around the Barns, swimming like Adam wouldn’t see water for a semester, picking flowers with Opal (making daisy chains and watching her slowly munch them up like a human slurping spaghetti, like a rodent vacuuming in a piece of hay), spending days driving and walking around the fields, spending nights dreaming Adam useful comforts to ease dorm life and silly comforts to make him laugh when the pressure of school was weighing him down. Spending nights together, skin to skin, passionate or chaste, talking, spooning, kissing, breathing each other in.

And now it was the last night. The car was packed, Adam’s clothes were picked out, Opal was asleep, and they were holding on to each other, desperate in a way that was betrayed by how casual their hands grasped. Not sleeping. 

His brain was driving itself into the dirt. 

_Eighty four and a half percent of high school romances end when one of the pair goes to college_ , the Internet had helpfully supplied him. “I’ll call, I swear,” he said. “And text. Sometimes.” He felt the way Adam pressed a smile against his neck, and hoped it was happy, not wry.

 _Only two percent of marriages in America were high school sweethearts_. Did that apply to him, he wondered? He was a dropout and the furthest thing from sweet, maybe that helped his chances. “I’ll drive up to visit,” he said. Adam squeezed him. “And you can come home whenever you’ve got a weekend free. Seriously, just whenever.” His voice was struggling for casual, and Adam squeezed him about five times tighter.

 _I love you_ , he thought. “Marry me,” he said.

And froze hideously. He ran back over the two words –  _what the FUCK, brain-to-mouth filter_ – and tried to tell himself his voice had been rough, not cracked, just throwing it out there but still serious. It hurt to lie even to himself, but he couldn’t take back the way it had come out.

Adam was still, so very still in his arms. 

So of course, he started to blather. “I’m not just fucking saying that to cockblock you from college hookups, like I mean it, I’m serious about you. And I’m not trying to make you get through college on my money or change your filing status for better loans or some shit,” –  _shut up shut up you’re not making it better_ – “I know you’re gonna get jobs, and I get it if I’m pushing and you want to meet smart people in college and compare your options before you just decide to settle—”

Adam’s warm, rough palm smacked over his mouth to cut him off. He felt his own goddamn lips trembling against Adam’s hand. “You think I didn’t consider the odds of meeting someone in college before I ever came back to kiss you on the porch? I thought it through fully before I committed myself to you, asshole. I’m not  _settling_.”

The tone was acid, but it was burning reassurance. Ronan’s heart didn’t slow. If anything, it kicked up another notch. 

“And as for marriage…not yet. I’m…not going to be part of this family until I’m a contributing member. We have to be equal partners. So not before I graduate.” 

Ronan swallowed and closed his eyes and kissed Adam’s palm. He pretended there wasn’t a wet streak on his cheek and Adam pretended he hadn’t felt the drop hit his finger. When he took his hand away, Ronan said, voice definitely hoarse, “you just don’t want your new college buddies to think you shotgunned your high school sweetheart because he knocked you up.” 

Adam’s laugh shook Ronan’s whole body. It was as bright as the sun and almost as big; Ronan thought launching himself into it would be an ideal way to die. 

“Dunno if you count as ‘high school’,” Adam teased, his accent poking out around the sleepy smile still clinging to his words. Ronan grinned in the dark. “But you’re definitely sweet enough.” Adam tucked his face back into Ronan’s neck and pressed a soft kiss under his jaw. 

Ronan was very quiet for a moment, and then he whispered, “Thank you for not saying no.” 

~~ 

Adam had the phone on speaker while he worked steadily at his Calculus homework. More often than not, it was him calling and letting it ring until Ronan managed to hunt down and snatch up his phone, but Ronan rarely took so long that it went to voicemail, and it never cut to voicemail like the call was rejected. Ronan was really trying and Adam appreciated it immensely. Even with Opal there, Ronan clearly missed Adam. And even with roommates and study buddies and a couple of casual friends he sat in several classes with, Adam was so lonely sometimes that he just wanted to quit and drive home to Ronan and stay there. 

Home. The way Ronan had first said the word to him, so casual but so pointed, would never leave Adam. 

He glanced at the list of majors on his wall to remind himself why he couldn’t just go back now. 

  * Animal Science
  * Agricultural and Business Management
  * Agricultural Economics
  * Agricultural Engineering
  * Environmental Toxicology
  * Horticultural Engineering
  * Plant and Environmental Soil Sciences
  * Ranchland Ecology and Management  




He was still working through course list comparisons, seeing which ones had enough crossover that he could possibly get a double major, or at least a major and a minor, but he was finishing up most of his prerequisites this semester, having tested out of several of his basic courses before the semester had started. He needed to meet with the guidance counselor to plot out his degree plan, as soon as he decided what specializations would be most useful in the future at the Barns. 

In  _their_ future at the Barns. His and Ronan’s and Opal’s.

Home. 

“Should I let you go?” Ronan’s voice brought him back. 

“Sorry, was just thinking. But I do have a lot of homework to get through tonight.” 

“It’s cool. I’ve gotta feed the cow.” Ronan had dreamt one cow, hoping that, like his buck had accustomed the wild deer to him, a cow of his own among his father’s herd might somehow accustom them to his dream energy and make waking them a bit stronger a possibility. “I’ll let you know when Opal picks a name that sticks for longer than two hours.” 

“That works for me. Talk to you soon.” The casual conversation closer was also a promise and an insistence. 

In Latin, sometimes Ronan told him ‘ _Te amo_ ,’ but in English it was always:

“Marry me.” Two words instead of the typical three, but they both knew what it meant. 

Adam smiled and gave his two words in kind. “Not yet.”  _I love you too_.

~~~ 

When Adam’s graduation ceremony finally let out – “ _We’ll confiscate diplomas at the door from anyone that tries to leave early; even the people in the Z’s deserve a full house when they get up to the stage_ ” – he was caught up in a mash of hugging bodies in an instant.

Tan and tan and tan, Blue and Gansey and Henry, flown all the way back in from the end of a semester at sea ( _college on a boat_ , thought Adam fondly,  _of course they would find a way_ ).

Opal was suctioned to his leg, sitting on his shoe and arms and legs wrapped tightly around his calf. Chainsaw, not to be outdone, was quite literally hopping on his other shoe and anxiously tugging his lace untied. 

And Ronan…Ronan wasn’t even trying to squeeze into the group hug. He clasped one of Adam’s hands in both of his own. 

He didn’t pull anything out of his pocket. He didn’t get on one knee. He didn’t even say those two words that always meant everyone else’s three. Possibly he couldn’t manage to speak. Instead he just arched an eyebrow and quirked his lips, questioning and hopeful and attempting to look casual, and Adam said, “Yes.” 

“Fucking finally.” Ronan tried for exasperation, for a growl, for complaint, for just a rough edge to his voice. But instead it was cracked, and neither of their eyes were dry, and everyone was smiling. Their friends let Adam go so they could squeeze each other tight and kiss and just breathe relief into each other’s mouths. Opal and Chainsaw did not let go, but that made for a very nice family hug. 

~~~~ 

They went to the Henrietta courthouse but held the ceremony in the courtyard, partially because the courthouse was associated with memories of Robert Parrish but largely so Chainsaw could be there.

Gansey was best man/witness and Blue was best woman/witness and Henry was self-designated photographer. Opal held the flowers she had picked and pelted Ronan with half of them at unprompted intervals during the ceremony, and waited until they were back in the car to eat the rest messily. Chainsaw bore the rings in her curved beak and hopped distractingly back and forth between Ronan’s and Adam’s shoulders and the minister was appropriately and respectfully alarmed. 

In other words, it was perfect. 

~~~ 

Even after the marriage, even after a special blessing from Ronan’s priest since they couldn’t get fully married in his church, even years together afterward, Ronan never completely gave up saying the most emotional two words he had, for the more typical three. 

Adam always smiled fondly and retorted his two words in return. “I did.” 


End file.
